HOUSE AND GARDEN 
July, 1911 
old-fashioned garden to part of our yard. 
One thing that gives success in the small 
garden is constant cutting of the flowers. 
It makes the bloom twice as vigorous and 
much more brilliant. 
Even with all this there is room for a 
little vegetable gardening which is quite 
sufficient to supply us fresh vegetables for 
the whole season. On the lawn in front 
there is no planting, but instead vines are 
trained on the porch and ferns and palms 
in porch boxes help to decorate. 
D. P. S. 
The Garden Water Supply 
The matter of an adequate water sup¬ 
ply seems to be more and more import¬ 
get the advantage of outdoor life, coupled 
with the inspiration of some beautiful pic¬ 
tures in House & Garden, determined me 
to see what I could do. The lot we own 
is 75 x 150 ft., facing east, with the house 
set well toward the front, thus leaving a 
modest back yard of 55 x 40 ft. This 
was my field for experiment and now, 
after two years, it contains about a hun¬ 
dred and twenty-five varieties of hardy 
shrubs and plants all in healthy and 
vigorous growth. Besides, it has been a 
source of constant pleasure, and a means 
of regaining my health. I never allow a 
man to do any work in it except the heavy 
spading and fertilizing in the fall. The 
rest I have done myself. 
For the contents of this little garden I 
mention first the stately hollyhocks. I 
have them around the edges, south, west 
and north. When a few scattered ones 
come up over the beds I leave one here 
and there, for it seems to me that a stray 
one is always pretty and artistic, even 
though out of line. One portion of the 
garden I call “my park.” It is full of 
hardy shrubs such as lilacs, hydrangeas, 
elders, sumac, altheas, snowball, japonica, 
hibisus and spirea. In the beds there are 
many of the well known hardy plants, but 
I always sow some annuals or find some 
have come up from the previous season 
where they have sowed themselves. Thus 
blossoms are there all the season—from 
the time the bulbs are in flower until the 
last chrysanthemum is captured by the 
frost. 
Hardy phlox is my favorite with its 
showy blossoms and it occupies an im¬ 
portant position for the garden stars. The 
beds I edge with sweet alyssum, and take 
pleasure in making it bloom steadily until 
the fall by careful trimming. Petunias, 
too, are constant bloomers in the borders. 
For the rest, the zinnias, marigolds, ver¬ 
benas and larkspurs add the charm of the 
The beautiful effects obtained by using hardy grasses in borders, masses and ornamental 
effects merit a more extensive use 
It should be of considerable encouragement to the garden beginner to know that this luxur¬ 
iant bloom is in the second year since planting 
ant every year. Either the seasons are 
actually changing, or we are at the dry 
point in the weather orbit. But even in 
seasons of ordinary rainfall, there are 
many times when the lawn, flower-beds 
and garden would be greatly benefited by 
a more copious drenching than can pos¬ 
sibly be given with the lawn sprinkler or 
watering can. In the East, the matter of 
irrigating is barely beginning to be un¬ 
derstood and its importance to be realized. 
Market-gardeners and others who work 
on a commercial scale have in isolated 
cases installed irrigating systems, and in 
every instance that has come under my 
notice, with great success. In a small way 
the home gardener will have to follow 
suit. We will not in most instances, of 
course, have enough watering to do to 
justify his buying a steam-pump or a 
gasoline engine and an elaborate sprink¬ 
ling system; but lie will find room for 
ingenuity in analyzing and solving his 
particular problem, and will earn rich re¬ 
wards by taking the pains to do it. For 
the benefit of those who have not before 
thought of the importance of this matter, 
I make just a few suggestions to start 
them thinking, and enable them to get at 
least a starting point in devising a home 
irrigating system. 
There are four factors which go to the 
making of such a system,—the water 
supply, the power with which to force it 
where it is needed, the means of conduct¬ 
ing it and the means of distributing it. In 
places supplied with city water, there is 
usually body and force enough to supply 
it to the grounds directly. It will usually 
be found better, however, to apply it 
through an inch or inch-and-a-half hose, 
than to use the common three-quarter inch 
size. Let the water run out. if possible, 
as a stream forced out under pressure is 
almost sure to work some damage among 
(Continued on page 58.) 
